Tangible Content and Digital Retail
Branded Content
Topman launch their own monthly digital magazine
BA Executive Club digital magazine
To address the objective of building long-term engagement with customers and nurturing fans, brands are increasingly looking to become curators of quality content for their audience. Topman and BA have both launched digital magazines that source relevant cultural content. Topman’s digital mag will offer an insight into fashion, music, film, sport and art, be viewable across multi-platform and the editor is the former Dazed Digital Arts and Culture editor. Sounds like it should be a great read. The BA magazine content is focussed mainly on travel and city guides.
British menswear brand has launched a 120 page print journal that aims to support creative talent. Although this costly, exclusive approach is best suited to luxury brands, it is worth remembering that engaging content does not have to be video measured by the number of hits, especially when you’re looking to engage a niche market.
A Newspaper for the Twitter Age
Little Printer is an idea that allows you to print off your favourite bits of the internet into a receipt sized newspaper. The creators behind the idea believe that people still like having something they can hold, such as a puzzle, or post on the fridge – like notes to the family.
Digital Retail
John Lewis have launched an interactive window display for xmas
Passers-by to the Brighton branch of Waitrose will notice a John Lewis virtual store in the window. The virtual store features pictures of the top 30 items for Christmas and a QR code for people to scan on their mobile and buy directly 24 hours a day. P&G have also launched their virtual subway stores. A further build to the idea would be if the top 30 list incorporated elements of social shopping e.g. it updated to show the most popular items sold or incorporated customer comments. I think this could increase the motivation/confidence to make that impulse purchase if you see others have bought it too.
Live events
Predictions for the future of live events
What does the future hold as purse strings tighten and entertainment systems become more and more advanced at home? Some interesting thoughts from event promoters and marketing strategists; live events should learn from festivals which not only feature music, food etc but foster a sense of community by encouraging people to mingle and meet, which is difficult to recreate online. Also, leveraging technology to extend the experience before, during and after the actual live portion of the event, and incorporate augmented reality to enhance the event itself e.g. show statistics. Either way, it is felt that events will become more important to businesses as the hard core fans that will still attend push their experience and UGC content out to the masses.
Children’s Social Networks
Most Kids Graduate to Mainstream Social Media Networks at 11
Research has found that in Western countries, most children are using mainstream social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook by 11 years old and have migrated off children’s networks. The Digital Diaries report by internet security company AVG looked at the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, EU5 and only Japan bucked the trend with few kids present on these sites.
Culture, Content and Codes
Culture (Music, Books, Food)
Google opens Android music store to challenge Apple iTunes
Currently only available in the US, Google have managed to sign up all the main music labels – except Warner Music so no Prince! Access to content is becoming key for these rivals to retain customers within their systems. By linking purchases to an account on an Apple or Google device it’s difficult for users to switch – “Everyone is using music and media as a jail. Ultimately, this stuff is going to be stored in the cloud and it becomes harder and harder to switch systems”. Also both companies have launched services in the US that allow you to access songs you own on any of your Android or iOS devices. As expected the Apple version is slicker and requires less work but costs $25 a year whereas the Android version is free. In an added extra, Google aims to let artists distribute their own work on Google Music – build an artist page, set prices and sell directly to fans. This could prove a nifty way to increase the content library for users if up and coming artists take this approach.
While some people predict the “death of print” what is clear is that storytelling is alive and kicking. New digital forms of stories are taking off all over the world, with the rise of self-publishing a particularly noticeable trend, supported by legend Seth Godin’s project with Amazon.
Order a takeaway from the chef next door
This idea caught my eye a few weeks back and I love the concept. A new company called Housebites offers hungry people the chance to order a reasonably priced takeaway from a local chef in their area. You go on the website, type in your post code and choose the chefs (rated by other users) and menus on offer that day. The order then gets biked round. This offers chefs the chance to test new recipes, build a following before opening a restaurant or just enjoy cooking someone a full menu rather than one element of one. Another example of community activation.
Fashion content
Fashion brands embracing online video
This shows the top ten fashion youtube videos in 2011 across branded and non-branded channels. Some key insights into what makes fashion content views fly are unsurprisingly some form of celebrity involvement — whether in front of or behind the camera but also videos with a humorous element tended to perform the best. This is something you may not consider with luxury brands but Lanvin’s lighthearted Fall 2011 campaign video has been viewed nearly half a million times since it debuted in August despite the lack of celebrity participation.
QR codes
Tesco to free up shelf space with augmented reality trial
With our extensive knowledge of new tech – real time apps, QR codes, augmented reality, it’s easy to forget that the general public often aren’t so clued up. However, Tesco, will be trialling augmented reality in their stores, allowing customers to have 360 views of the products, such as TVs, which take up lots of shelf space. Is this the tipping point towards mass awareness? HMV too using QR codes in a new outdoor campaign. Together with Fox they have turned bus stops into virtual shelves with each DVD containing its own QR code so consumers can scan and purchase on the spot. Given the season, it might be quite successful when you’re sitting at the bus stop and realise you’ve forgotten that one present.
Travel
Virgin Book Your Holiday by Weather
Now this idea obviously has a targeted audience, namely those who are a fan of spontaneity and adventure, and have strong ideas of what they want the weather to be like on holiday. However, the idea behind it is fantastic, it wasn’t too long ago that holidays had to be booked months before through a travel agent, and now we can pretty much take off without knowing our destination.
Social
For those of you who are not as Tumblr conscious, it falls somewhere between a fully fledged blog and twitter, with an emphasis on “reblogging”, and in the last year it blew up somewhat. Despite being around since 2007, the past year has seen it grow globally by 900%, putting tumblr on most peoples radar.
Behaviour change
PleaseCycle aims to ‘gamify’ commute with Bike Miles
PleaseCycle have launched another iteration of rewarding people with points for cycling. We wrote about TfL using this initiative a few weeks ago and PleaseCycle aims to make this a corporate scheme. What’s next – local councils offering you points for good behaviour – recycling, volunteering in your borough?
Juiced 